‘Beauty and the Beast’ Knocked ‘Star Wars’ Out of the All-Time Domestic Box Office Top 10

This past weekend, a seismic shift in box-office history took place and went largely unnoticed. The writing was on the wall for Star Wars’ legacy in the all-time domestic top 10 films, as box-office behemoth Beauty and the Beastcontinued to generate healthy grosses in its fifth weekend of release, ending the weekend with a princely (or should I say, princessly!) sum of $471.1 million. This gave the film a slight edge of the next-most-lucrative film on the list, which just so happened to be George Lucas’ original space opus. Star Wars and its lifetime gross of $461 million have now slid down to the #11 spot.

That’s that, but what does it all mean? For one, this isn’t set in stone. Few movies are as readily geared for theatrical re-release as Star Wars, so the eventuality of the film eventually earning another ten million or so and retaking its spot in the top ten is far from out of the question. Another thing to keep in mind is that Lucasfilm’s still well-represented in the top ten — Rogue One currently occupies the #7 spot, and The Force Awakens is perched right at the tippity-top of the list. (For now — we’ll see where The Last Jedi lands come December.) One thing that was kinda nice about having Star Wars in the top ten was that it wasthe only entry not based on pre-existing characters and not directed by James Cameron, who seems to have forced Titanic and Avatarinto the top ten through sheer force of will.

To be completely frank, the distinction of all-time top 10 domestic box office doesn’t really carry as much weight as it used to. 2015 yielded two newcomers, 2016 two more. 2017’s just had its first, Last Jedi will undoubtedly crack in as well — I dunno, this just had more prestige when it wasn’t happening, like, all the time.